Who is Susan Merlo, the Author?

Short answer: go to her website at NextLeveliMedia.com. Long answer: I met Susan over ten years ago and have been watching her digital successes for distributors ever since. Her new book is a how-to, roadmap for creating effective, New-Normal, digital capabilities.

How Customer-Centric is Your Marketing? A Quiz:

When I ask distributors:

1. How do you define your most net-profitable, core-strength, customer segment(s)?
2. Who are your 5 most progressive customers within your #1 niche?
3. How have they helped you define what Basic Service-Excellence is with 7-9 metrics built upon: best one-stop, in-stock, fill-rates for your competitive marketspace?
4. If you have best, service-metric value: how well have you marketed it to win and then partner best customers?
5. How will you digitally sell and market to millennial B2B buyers who: don’t want regular sales calls (or pay for those calls with higher prices)?
6. What do they want? Have you asked them?

I get many blank looks…

New Normal Imperatives

The pandemic has Zoomified our personal and business lives. Meanwhile, Amazon continues to condition us to want ever-better, “digital-buying experiences”. Don’t we (and our customers) increasingly want: 1) a 24/7/365 digital, DIY capability; 2) with waking-hour virtual, human support as needed; and 3) an on-site visit by request with the best rep of their choosing?

Related Questions:

1. Are your new e-hybrid selling models tuned to different customer segments?
2. What digital content do you have to support these models?
3. These aren’t tweaks to old models; they are reinventions. Who is your champion and what roadmap will they use?

Susan’s Roadmap to the Rescue

Who will get what benefits from Susan’s book?

1. For CEO/owners of small firms who don’t have a formal, full-time “marketing department”. You will get an eye-opening education that will inform you as to who to pick as your “digital sales and marketing champion”. Plus, a step-by-step roadmap of what they must do to succeed.
2. Mid-to-larger firms with “marketing” staff? Use Susan’s book to – audit, upgrade, update and transform – existing capabilities. Susan’s discussion steps and checklists are comprehensive. Read and discuss her steps to uncover historic frustrations and exciting new possibilities.

In my next blog, I’ll riff of Susan’s chapter on: “Creating Your Buyer Personas”.

Meanwhile

Register to receive an early copy of the book at: nextlevelimedia.com/book-coming-soon